The Saideh Puraqayi Stories

The story of Saideh Puraqayi has appeared on otherwise credible websites allied with the Green Movement (the democratic-Islamic opposition in Iran). We will exam this story as it appeared in these websites in this posting. Then we will show how this story is clearly another hoax. In our next post, we will show the real Saideh Puraqayi tragedy, which had been coopted by a hitherto unheard of group.
First, we post the three stories as they appeared.

Story 1

Exposing the name and address of one of the martyrs who was secretly buried in Parcel 302 of Behesht-e Zahra
Saideh Puraqayi, Victim of the Plainclothesmens’ Crimes

New information reached the Green Wave of Freedom two days ago about a forgotten martyr of the Green Movement, whose details we have reviewed over the past two days and have become certain of its truth. This painful report says that another girl, like Taraneh Mousavi, has become a victim of the professional criminal behavior of some of the Basij members and, after this, her body was even burned with acid and, finally, was secretly buried without her family’s presence in Parcel 302 of Behesht-e Zahra. It is all the more interesting that this report should be published just when the Coup government has put the show of forming a cabinet on its agenda, a government which has come to power with bloodshed and crime.
According to the Green Wave of Freedom, Saideh Puraqayi (Amayi) the young daughter whose body is now buried in one of the forgotten graves of Parcel 302 of Behesht-e Zahra was the only child of a martyred soldier, Abbas Puraqayi (Amayi), who, while busy crying “Allahu Akbar” from the roof of her home on Dawlat Street one of the nights after the coup, was arrested by plainclothes forces tied to the Basij. After twenty days, her body was identified by her mother in one of the cold storage depots in south Tehran. But the officials in charge refused to turn over the body to her mother and now, after weeks of being kept in the dark, her family was informed that she had been secretly interred in Parcel 302 of Behesht-e Zahra.
According to this report, the family of this martyr of the Green Movement has been kept under intense pressure these past weeks to keep from exposing this event, but, finally, the silence on this matter was broken and this sorry event of the wrong which was visited on this martyred child, was explained by some knowledgeable individuals whose names the Green Wave of Freedom will not mention as a matter of security.
According to those in the know, Saideh Puraqayi was subject to savage rape and then killed. Her rapists burned her body from her knees up with burning acid to completely wipe out the traces of this horrible crime. They then put her family under pressure to announce that the cause of their daughter’s death was severe kidney disease. This happened when Saideh’s when Saideh’s body had absolutely not been turned over to her family and hearing about Saideh’s illness astonished her family which was certain that she had no record of any such illness. It was precisely this lie which ultimately let to this event’s exposure.
It is worth saying that the funeral ceremonies for the martyr Saideh Pouraqayi (Amayi) was held on Saturday, Shahrivar 7 in a restricted fashion in the Qolhak (her place of residence) and members of the Green Movement were present to present their condolences to the grieving family of this poor martyr.
It is worth mentioning that some new information, which will be published to complete the report, shows that most of the people who have been secretly and anonymously buried in Behesht-e Zahra are girls who have been subject to savage rape by the security forces and crypto-security forces and their nocturnal and illegal burials were to prevent the exposure of the dimensions of the crimes which have occurred.
Aside from these nameless graves, the Green Wave of Freedom has learned of a mass grave near Behesht-e Zahra. As soon as further confirmation and details are received, this report will also be presented to for the readers’ information.

Story 2

Parleman News: As the news of someone named Saideh Pouraqayi (Amayi), a young girl whose body, it was said, had been buried in an unmarked grave in Plot 302 of Behesht -e Zahra, someone sent a memo to the Imam’s Line Fraction of the Majlis about her life and arrest.
According to the Majis’ Imam’s Line Fraction’s Parleman News, it was written in this text, titled “Today, Everyone Wept:”

Said[eh] had not had a father for two years, although even before that, her father could not participate very much in her life. The war left her father with a diseased body. Whatever was left of him, however, was her father, full of memories about the war’s terrors. Memories of eight years of defense of the honor of the nation of Iran and hope that we would safeguard this honor after he was gone. Saideh lost her father two years before. The effects left of chemical weapons no longer left him able to remain and he had to go and leave to us his wife and young daughter, who were memorials of the years of war and the Imam. And what have we done?!
Yesterday was the funeral ceremony for Saideh. But it was no funeral service! It was only her mother and a few members of the family and Mohandes Mir Hosein Mousavi and, of course, a gloomy and sad atmosphere. Until the night came when two men and three women came and took her away forever.
Saideh, in order to cooperate with the Green Movement, only went to the rooftop not to make a coup, velvet or otherwise, but to say, “Allahu akbar.”
Her guardian into whose trust she had been given went everywhere to find the memorial of her martyred husband, but no matter how she tried, she got nowhere until she appealed to someone close to the presidency and he guided her to an industrial cold storage depot. Yes, she embraced her Saideh, but how black and how cold. Why was there no longer any of the energy and enthusiasm left in this youth?
Yesterday, everyone wept.

Story 3

Two days ago, the Green Wave has published a report about the killing of Saideh Puraqayi which I, for my part, have posted here. This is a more complete report about what Saideh suffered, which the Green Wave of Freedom has again published. It wrote that it received the information for this report from high-ranking officials in the Reform Government [the Khatami government]. It is a painful event. Saideh could have been my sister who, a few nights ago after some time once more went to the rooftop and said, “Allahu akbar” for a few minutes until the neighbors, too, joined in bit by bit.

Saideh Puraqayi was arrested for saying “Allahu akbar,” but not at night when she said it. This arrest, or rather, this kidnapping, took place during the day, when three veiled women came to here house while she was at home alone. These ladies announced to her that her saying “Allahu akbar” excited her neighbors to say, “Allahu akbar” and that she must come along with them to the detention center.

Since there was no one else home and her mother might return and be nervous for her or stand waiting for her, she told her neighbors that they were bringing her to the detention center for interrogation. For this reason, she left the door to her house unlocked and told one of her female neighbors that if her mother does not have the key, she should explain the event for her and wait until her mother returns.

After Saideh’s mother found out what had happened, she sought out her daughter’s fate any way she could, but could find no news. Finally, she appealed to Dr. (…), a comrade in arms of her husband, the martyr Puraqayi. Mr. (…) could find out nothing no matter where he looked. Finally, because of the friendship he had for this girl’s father, he determined to raise the issue with Hashemi Samareh, a mutual friend of his and the martyr Puraqayi.1

Mr. Hashemi Samareh, for his part, got back in touch with him after a while and, without offering any explanation, simply told them that they should go to Block Six of the coroner [legal doctor]. Saideh’s mother went to the coroner along with several others and was faced with the body of a girl burnt beyond recognition. She declared that this body was just to throw her off the trail and was not her daughter’s. But after close inspection of the body and the discovery of a mole on the dead girl’s leg, she became certain of its identity and fainted. The coroner, too, presented an interesting report on this matter which shows the horrible crimes this girl’s kidnappers had committed and which will perhaps be published.

Although this innocent girl’s body had been seen by her mother and those accompanying her, they would not turn the body over to her and buried it under controlled conditions without any sensation. They announced to her mother that if this event were to be publicized, they would publish a document saying that her daughter was a prostitute and that her death had occurred under these circumstances.

As for the statements of her mother about her daughter dying of an illness, her family was suspicious of them and it was because of their persistence that the details of this affair were exposed.

At the funeral ceremonies which were held for Saideh, Mohandes Mir Hosein Mousavi also participated and expressed his condolences.

Notes:1 Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi is a close adviser to Mahmud Ahmadinejad (and relative of), both when he was mayor of Tehran and when he was president. He was appointed to be the political councilor and electoral chief of staff for the Ministry of the Interior during the first Ahmadinejad administration. (Aftab.) Most, if not all government programs were decided on by him. He had a record of being close to Ayatollah Mesbahi-Yazdi, particularly when Ahmadinejad was mayor. (Az Darjeye Sefr Neveshtar) He is now Iran’s attorney general.

Contradictions and Implausibilities and Impossibilities of the Three Versions
It is to be expected that differences will appear in the telling of any event. One must use ones judgment in determining to what degree, if any, they discredit the story.

Who arrested her? The second version has three women and two men. The third has three women.When was she arrested? The first version has her arrested on the spot at night. The third amends it to the day time.How did the story break? In the first version, it was broken by “some knowledgeable individuals” whose names had to be kept secret for their protection. This was later amended, inexplicably, to saying that the Green Wave of Freedom “wrote [when?] that it received the information for this report from high-ranking officials in the Reform Government.” It is hard to imagine why such figures would need such protection. People like Morteza Alviri have dealt openly dealt in such issues. And… why could this not have been said in the first version?Magic informationWhen an author writes a piece of fiction, one is allowed privileged access to sights and sounds perceived by the protagonist alone. When a journalist does this, he is indulging in magic information. In the third version, how do we know what the arresting agents said to Saideh? They presumably did not tell “the high-ranking officials in the Reform Government.” Nor did Saideh tell.The thoughtful basiji kidnappers In the third version, the basiji ladies thoughtfully allowed Saideh to more than one neighbor before hustling her off to meet her fate. It is hard to know what role this was supposed to play in the narrative, but there it is, in all its improbability, not to say absurdity.Mir Hosein Mousavi at the funeral In the original Green Wave of Freedom statement, “members of the Green Movement” presented their condolences. In the final version of their statement, perhaps under the influence of the lugubrious “We All Wept” which apparently first raised this, he does. Aside from being an impossible omission in the first statement, since Mir Hosein Mousavi always travels with an entourage when presenting his condolences, complete with photographer, and given the absence of any photographic evidence or any other mention of Mir Hosein Mousavi’s presence at this memorial, we can safely assume that this is a fake.Friends in high places: It is hard to imagine how this simple soldier could have been friends with Ahmadinejad’s shadowy lieutenant Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi, even had he been an Ahmadinejad supporter. This is hinted at in the second version and confirmed in the third. Presumably, the mother had to have some connection with the repressive apparatus to find out where her daughter was buried, and Samareh-Hashemi was going to be the man.The family: Left unexplained in all this is what role the Puraqayi family’s suspicions played in any of this. All the narrative says is that this poor mother was looking high and low to find her daughter. Her family’s role in all of this would seem to be zero. Yet it was their suspicions of the story of kidney failure which allegedly broke the story, according to both versions issued by the Green Wave of Freedom.
Lose ends: The Green Wave of Freedom’s narrative included some promises of reports in the near future. Its first statement claims that “most of the people who have been secretly and anonymously buried in Behesht-e Zahra are girls who have been subject to savage rape.” Adding to the horror is a promise of the unearthing of a mass grave near Behesht-e Zahra. The reading public will no doubt find this sensational, but might wonder why only this hitherto unknown group is the sole proprietor of this stunning information.
In our next posting, we will discuss the real Saideh Puraqayi and her sad, if less sensational, tale.

[…] buried her body, which had been burned by acid, and, in regard to this same S[aideh] P[uraqayi], sites tied to Messrs. Mir Hosein Mousavi and Karoubi and various counter-revolutionary media, referring […]

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